One Chase Manhattan Plaza

This large, boxy skyscraper at 28 Liberty Street may not be ornate or even as attractive as some of the simple glass towers we see sprouting up on the city’s side streets, but One Chase Manhattan Plaza’s architectural significance is profound. Erected in 1960, the building is accredited with bringing forth a downtown renaissance that paved the way for Battery Park City and the World Trade Center. But more than that, when it was finished, the 60-story tower shook up the Lower Manhattan skyline, introducing a stoic, flat-roofed and unabashedly modern construction into a scene that was considered the most romantic and famous in the world.